Ward aiming to stop Gray in his tracks on his return

Stephen Ward joked that the Clarets will have to give Andre Gray a kick early on when the striker makes his Turf Moor return tomorrow.

Burnley know everything there is to know about the club’s former record signing who moved to Watford for a fee rising to a record £18m in the summer.

Gray was the Championship’s top scorer with 25 goals during the 2015/16 campaign, as Sean Dyche’s side won the title.

The 26-year-old went on to score nine times in his first season in the Premier League, moving his tally for the term in to double figures with a goal against Sunderland in the FA Cup.

The striker, signed from Brentford, was also named the Championship’s Player of the Year during his time with the Clarets, and was added to the PFA Team of the Year.

“We know all about him and it’ll be good to see him,” said Ward.

“We all know what he did for us.

“He’s got pace, power, he can score goals, it’s as simple as that.

“We’ll just get one of our lads to kick him early on!”

Burnley sit seventh in the top flight after 15 games, just three points ahead of Marco Silva’s Hornets, but Ward believes that there’s still more to come.

He said: “We’re very pleased with the start but we know that we can still get better and play better.

“It’s like that with every team, you always think there’s more to come. That’s why we work so hard every day on the training pitch, to try and nudge ourselves that little bit higher and get better at more things.

“Overall the performances have been of a very high calibre but we’ll take it one game at a time and we’ll look forward to Watford.

“We need to keep it going. There are no easy games in this league. We’ve got Watford to come and they got a good result against Tottenham.”

Ward added: “It’s great but first and foremost we’ll look to get to 40 points and then we’ll set ourselves a new goal. Our mantra from the manager is ‘one game at a time’.

“That’s always the way with our manager - get the next points on the board as quickly as possible and that’s what we’ll look to do against Watford.

“They’re a very creative side and it’ll be another test for us. We’ll go in to it head on as we always do.

“We’ve got a couple of home games coming up, with Stoke as well, so hopefully we can get a few more points on the board.”